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Salmonella typhi is a bacterium that causes typhoid fever through ingestion of contaminated food or water. It is part of the Salmonella enterica species and can live in the intestinal tracts of both cold-blooded and warm-blooded animals. Immediate antibiotic treatment can resolve the condition, but it is still prevalent in countries with poor sanitation.
Salmonella typhi is a bacterium. It lives in the intestinal tracts of many animals, and contamination of food or water by this bacterium in fecal matter transmits typhoid disease. Typhoid is a life-threatening disease and has a history of causing fever in people living in countries with poor sanitation.
Many different types of illnesses are caused by Salmonella bacteria. Historically, each type of disease and the causative strain has been given a different species name. For example, Salmonella typhi causes typhoid fever in humans and Salmonella typhimurium causes foodborne illness in humans and typhoid-like illness in mice. Now, however, most of the Salmonella pathogenic bacteria, which were previously a species of their own, are now part of the Salmonella enterica species.
As part of the Salmonella enterica species, S. typhi is a serotype of the S. enterica species. Each serotype has its own specific antigenic profile compared to the others of the subspecies. Therefore, S. typhi may also be more accurately referred to as Salmonella enterica subspecies enterica serovar Typhi. Doctors generally take a shortcut and use the older name of S. typhi to refer to the bacterium.
S. typhi can live in the intestinal tracts of cold-blooded animals, such as reptiles, and warm-blooded animals, such as humans. The bacterium is very similar to Escherichia coli, a very common intestinal microbe. Salmonella typhi can survive in environments with or without oxygen and is shaped like a rod.
Typhoid fever is a disease caused by ingestion of food or drink contaminated with fecal material containing the bacterium. If the bacterium makes its way past the host’s gastrointestinal defenses, it can enter the bloodstream. Headache, fever and lack of appetite result. Sometimes, the affected person shows a mottled rash, but not always. Although typhus can be life-threatening, immediate antibiotic treatment can resolve the condition.
The bacterium was first noticed in cases of typhoid in the late 1800s. Before that, many different forms of gastrointestinal illness with fever were included under the name typhoid. The most famous case of typhus occurred in the early 20th century, when a cook named Mary Mallon fell ill and became a symptom-free carrier.
He then infected many people through food contamination with Salmonella typhi he carried in his intestinal tract. Typhoid Mary, as she came to be known, eventually had to be locked up in New York to prevent her from working as a cook and endanger the lives of the people she cooked for. While typhus is rare in countries with good sanitation, it still infects people in poorer countries that lack adequate sanitation infrastructure.
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